REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF FISH COMMISSIONERS. 31 



Death of Quinnat Salvion. — The salmon of the genus Oncorhynchu.s 

 apparently has no instinct whatever to return to salt water after spawn- 

 ing. Worn-out specimens are sometimes seen drifting down stream and 

 have been found as far down as Sacramento, though it is by no means 

 certain that such have been on spawning-beds. In such cases they are 

 simply too weak to stem the current and, according to a Sacramento 

 fisherman, " not fit to look at." Dead salmon rarely float, although 

 the current sometimes washes them along the bottom a short distance. 

 I have seen dead salmon lie for several days in rapids and have seen 

 them in all stages of decay in strong currents. Of the two hundred or 

 more dead salmon that were marked and thrown over the upper rack 

 at Battle Creek fishery in 1900, only two were carried to the lower 

 rack, which was a half mile farther down stream. In small streams 

 the water is often greatly contaminated by the dead fish, and the stench 

 is a great nuisance to people living in the vicinity. 



The great variation in size of spawning salmon, together with the 

 occasional presence of certain scars, such as a broken nose, has led 

 many people to doubt whether they all die after spawning once. The 

 variation in size amounts to nothing as an argument, when we know 

 that with about sixty marked fishes known to be of the same age, taken 

 in the Columbia River in 1898, the variation in size was from 10 to 57 

 pounds. The broken nose could be received at many other times than 

 when spawning. 



It is sometimes thought that if a spawned-out salmon would float 

 down stream to salt water it would revive, but svich is not the case. 

 Humpback and dog salmon often spawn in small creeks and brooks 

 that empty directly into the ocean, yet they die like other species. They 

 have been seen dying and dead in brackish water. The investigation of 

 the blueback salmon or redfish in Idaho in 1895 (see Bulletin United 

 States Fish Commission, 1896, p. 192), when a net was placed across the 

 mouth of a small stream containing about a thousand salmon, proved 

 that that species has no tendency to return to salt water after spawn- 

 ing. Lake Karluk, Kadiak Island, Alaska, is but about twenty miles 

 from the ocean and is a great spawning-place for the blueback salmon. 

 The outlet is shallow near the mouth, and if the salmon ever went back 

 the Indians would be sure to see them, but they do not. In June, 1897, 

 the shore of the lake for miles was lined with the bones of the salmon 

 that had died six to eight months previously. The fact that all salmon 

 of the genus Oncorhynchvs die very shortly after spawning once can not 

 be questioned. 



THE TROUT LAW. 



After careful consideration of the subject, we are of the opinion that 

 it would l)e wise and beneficial to the trout interests to amend tho 

 present law, which opens the season for the taking of trout on April 



